More troubles with HealthCare.gov, and persistent clogging from traffic

By Russ Britt

It promises to be a rocky finish for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department as it tries to conclude open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, thanks to a second glitch — this time due to heavy last-minute traffic — that kept newcomers from registering on HealthCare.gov Monday afternoon.

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Greeting noting delays in Obamacare enrollment …

HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said the function in which users could create accounts on the website was down for about an hour around noon Eastern, preventing prospective insurance buyers from at least getting their names into the system. She said the issue revolved around heavy traffic that was three times that of the site’s previous record-setting day, on Dec. 23, when consumers were up against a deadline to receive coverage by Jan. 1.

Traffic remained high throughout the day, however, and consumers were still being met with a greeting that said: “Healthcare.gov has a lot of visitors right now!” The greeting meant that consumers would have to wait in a queue or put their name in to try later. Peters said the queue had been in effect for high-traffic situations.

… and what it should look like when delays subside.

“This is to be expected, business as usual,” she said.

But a number of consumers may not be able to create an account until after the 11:59 p.m. Eastern deadline — 8:59 p.m. Pacific — for at least getting to the account-creation stage. If that’s the case, consumers can attest they tried to get on and then register after the deadline, Peters said.

HealthCare.gov was shut down for six hours from about 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday after a software bug was found in the system. The heavy traffic and extended deadlines could push Obamacare enrollment past its original projected 7 million users when all is said and done. Roughly 6 million users were listed as fully enrolled on Thursday.

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